Lara Burns

Lara Burns is a distinguished attorney and retired federal agent with more than 23 years of experience leading teams in complex international terrorism investigations. At the outset of her career as an FBI Special Agent, she led the Department of Justice’s largest terrorism financing investigation and prosecution, United States v. Holy Land Foundation, et al, which led to the conviction of some of Hamas’ top fundraisers in America. She was later hand-selected to serve as an FBI Special Assistant United States Attorney in the NDTX-Dallas office, assigned to the National Security Section, where she litigated a variety of federal criminal cases. She was then appointed as an FBI Supervisory Special Agent and the International Terrorism Program Coordinator for the FBI Dallas office’s counterterrorism program in 2015.  In that capacity, she led investigations and prosecutions in various terrorism matters that spanned the globe.  She was also an FBI instructor for the majority of her career, teaching federal, state, local, and foreign governments about terrorism financing, money laundering, and interview techniques.  She retired from the FBI in April 2023, and worked as a Cyber Security researcher in the private sector until she joined the Program on Extremism in May 2024.

Publications